18 Year Old Murder Suspect Faces 2nd Degree Murder Charges

An 18 year old man is being held on a second degree murder charge after being arrested in Saturday's fatal shooting outside the Seasons Performance Hall.  The suspect, 18-year-old William Escobar Martinez, who was arrested Saturday ,also faces a charge of unlawful possession of a firearm. He is scheduled to make a preliminary appearance at this afternoon in Yakima County Superior Court. Yakima Police Captain Rod Light says the department wasn't made aware of the concert happening at the season's performance hall. "For us to have knowledge about something like that in our city, just gives us the opportunity to pass that along to the officers that are out there."

He says if they had known of the event they would have had a bigger presence when it ended and the fatal fight happened.  22 year old Damarius Morgan was killed in the shooting and 19 year old Isaiah Prince was shot in the leg.

Meanwhile the Executive Director of the Seasons Performance Hall Ellie Strosahl says there have been similar events at The Seasons with no problems, and she had no reason to believe that there would be problems at this event.  She told KIT News 'we didn’t have staff there that night because we weren’t serving alcohol.  She also said The Seasons is safety-conscious, and she has canceled hip-hop shows in the past if there seemed to be any threat of violence."

Light say gunfire broke out after a fight on Staff Sgt. Pendleton Way outside the Seasons, where a promoter was holding an event for a local effort to highlight musicians.